The Bartering Club has developed an Advertising barter program, which offers restaurants additional advantages. The media company receives, in exchange of the advertising space, Gift Certificates that come in $30 denominations.

It is obvious that food and alcohol do not comprise all of any restaurant costs. Also, because barter promises to bring in customers when the restaurant is less than full, and is most successful when used to fill empty seats. You can't count the cost of staff, electricity, linen or decoration. The lights are on, the tables are set, the waiters in place anyway. By utilizing this space barter simply spreads costs more optimally.

The actual cost of doing barter business is really limited to only the cost of the food and beverage and that cost usually runs somewhere between 30% to 35% of them. What the restaurant is trading is its food, beverage, and empty space. 

Incorporated into many barter agreements with restaurants are certain exclusions. A restaurant always busy on Saturday night may want to exclude that night from trade. A restaurant packed at lunch may also exclude lunch.  

The Gift Certificates have the provision that no change can be returned in the event that the meal costs less than the face value of the Gift Certificate redeemed. They can be used to pay for food and beverage, excludes tax and gratuity, and have an expiration date. The expiration date is largely for the benefit of the restaurant owners; most of them like to know that there is some date after which they would not be accepting the Gift Certificate, should they decide to cancel the program. 

As a restaurants using The Bartering Club's system soon you will learn to appreciate the extra trade or cash you receive. 

Should a meal cost $44 plus tax and tip, the patron would usually give the restaurant one Gift Certificate with a face value of $30, plus $14 cash for the balance, plus tax and tip in cash.

Should the meal cost $47 or $48, the patron would probably pay with $60 in Gift Certificates and allow the restaurant to retain the barter profit. (No change is given when a Gift Certificate is used.)

In the first scenario, which often occurs, the restaurant gets 30% of the bill back in cash. Since his real cost was only 30% on a dollar, he has received back full fully 100% of his actual out-of-pocket expense for food and beverages.

Many times a patron will spend much more than the amount of the Gift Certificate he has to pay for it with. Accordingly, he must make up the difference in cash that in most cases it will cover the total cost of the food and beverages. 

To sweeten the deal even more for client restaurants, The Bartering Club's Gift Certificates are good for 100% of the meal only for parties of one or two people. So for parties of three or more people the restaurateur sees a return of his entire cash outlay and makes a profit.  The barter system provides the astute restaurant owner a powerful competitive edge in a highly-spirited business environment and a new way to capture new clients.